Multiple Sclerosis: Montel Williams and MS (cont.)

I have testified before congressional staffers, I will soon testify before Congress and I have met with legislatures of multiple states in an effort to allow this as an additional weapon in the arsenal doctors can utilize to reduce pain.

It is already approved in 11 states. It was most recently approved in the U.K. through a company called GW and that company has inroads into Canada.

I feel very strongly if a doctor can prescribe me morphine, and we feel he's qualified and smart enough to do that, and that same doctor prescribes me marijuana, we should trust that doctor's opinion. I feel I should be able to be prescribed that in all 50 states, as it is in the current 11.

MEMBER: Montel, I also have progressive-relapsing MS, and I also have the most problems with fatigue, cognitive problems, insomnia, and pain. I tried the marijuana after trying all the pain meds, and it's the only thing that's worked for me. It reduces the shaking, I relax, and then I can sleep. I too have pain in my feet, so I know what you experience. I'm behind it completely.

WILLIAMS: During the Clinton
administration, a study was done to refute the medical efficacy of marijuana.
The U.S. government commissioned doctors to study this drug to see if it had any
efficacy at all. Contrary to the study's objective, the doctors discovered that
for three illnesses marijuana had incredible efficacy: MS, cancer and AIDS.

We know for a fact that marijuana works and our government supports it because for the last 25 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, through a program at the University of Mississippi, has been distributing medicinal marijuana to now seven patients every month for the last 25 years. It was initially 12 patients, five of whom have now passed away. While you read this on your computer, seven pharmacies across the United States are receiving canisters of pre-rolled joints stamped with the federal government stamp on it and they had been receiving this, again, hear me, for the last 25 years.

"How dare they say this does not work and how dare they say who gets to suffer and who doesn't."

Now, we know for a fact the U.S. government would not give a medication to a U.S. citizen that it didn't feel worked. The U.S. government would not certify a university to be able to use taxpayer dollars to grow it and distribute it if we didn't know it worked. The only reason why we stay in the same position that we are in this country is because when the program was started as a pilot, shown to have efficacy under the first Bush administration, about 40,000 people applied to be part of the program. The U.S. government at the time didn't want to get in the business of marijuana distribution so they closed the program to the 12 participants. For the last 25 years our government has basically said, "We think these 12 people deserve to live their lives pain free and because we can't sort out our social issue, the rest of you must suffer."

This month the United States government will deliver seven canisters of marijuana to seven people across this county. How dare they say this does not work and how dare they say who gets to suffer and who doesn't.

I know I just said something the majority of your readers did not know.

MEMBER: And many more people deserve to know this Montel!

WILLIAMS: Now there are 23 million hits on this web site, I understand, each month. If there's one thing you take away from this chat, email our government, email the FDA and ask them, "Why do you determine who gets to suffer and who doesn't?"

MEMBER: I do know that I would much rather take a couple of hits of marijuana before bedtime instead of taking the Vicodin, morphine, Percocet, etc., and I would definitely go with the marijuana. I will definitely email my opinion to the government and FDA. Thanks Montel, as I was only diagnosed last May, and after reading your books and listening to you on TV, I know I can handle this disease.

MEMBER: I've always wanted to go the marijuana route and here in Maine it is legal for medical reasons but try and find a doctor who will prescribe it.

"You can let your doctor know the Supreme Court struck down for there to be any repercussions for recommending medicinal marijuana uses."

WILLIAMS: I understand in a lot of states where it is legal, doctors are afraid because some doctors still believe it's illegal to recommend. Let's get it straight, not one of the states that has made a legislative change on the use of medicinal marijuana has provided a vehicle for the marijuana to be distributed, so many doctors feel the fear of repercussions if their name is with a medical marijuana recommendation.

You can let your doctor know the Supreme Court struck down for there to be any repercussions for recommending medicinal marijuana uses. If you let your doctor know that and they themselves discern that is true, that may help you write you a recommendation. But the recommendation in 10 of the 11 states where it's available is truly useless because no mechanism has been put in place for you to be able to get the medicinal marijuana.